Bear Island (1979)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Don Sharp

Writers:

Alistair MacLean (novel)
Murray Smith (additional material) ...

Release Date:

August 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Below freezing and beyond fear... Will anyone survive its terror?

Plot:

A group of people converge on a barren Arctic island. They have their reasons for being there but when...

Plot Keywords:

Arctic | Island | Murder | Nazi | Gold

Cast

Donald Sutherland	...	Frank Lansing
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Heddi Lindquist
Richard Widmark	...	Otto Gerran
Christopher Lee	...	Lechinski
Barbara Parkins	...	Judith Rubin
Lloyd Bridges	...	Smithy
Lawrence Dane	...	Paul Hartman
Patricia Collins	...	Inge Van Zipper
Michael J. Reynolds	...	Heyter
Nicholas Cortland	...	Jungbeck
August Schellenberg	...	Marine Technician
Candace O'Connor	...	Laboratory Assistant
Joseph Golland	...	Meteorological Assistant
Bruce Greenwood	...	Technician (Tommy)
Richard Wren	...	Radio Operator

Also Known As:

Alistair MacLean's Bear Island (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

118 min | Canada:110 min

Country:

UK | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Norway:16 (original rating) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Glacier Bay National Park, Gustavus, Alaska, USA

Company:

Bear Island

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When everyone is outside after the generator explosion it is blowing a blizzard, but the flames are rising vertically with minimal wind disturbance rather than being virtually horizontal, revealing that wind machines are being used just on the area where the actors are.

Icebound thriller gets frosty reception

The UK-Canada co-production treaty of the late Seventies produced a lot of dross. "Bear Island" is better than some of its companions but still no classic.

Alistair MacLean's novel was a turgid affair, written at the start of his long decline as a writer. The film-makers wisely ditch most of his plot but the story they substitute, about an icy hunt for wartime Nazi gold, is no masterpiece of originality. Vanessa Redgrave's Norwegian accent comes and goes (at times, she sounds like the Swedish chef from "The Muppets") and Donald Sutherland tries for depth by speaking - very - very - slowly. Anybody who has seen a few of these films won't take long to guess the identity of the "mystery" villain.

On the credit side, the locations are spectacular and Robert Farnon's music score is appropriately portentous. Don Sharp knows how to direct action (he had been brought in a few years earlier to ginger up another MacLean adaptation, "Pupper On a Chain") and the fights are well-staged.